Reve grinned as soon as he passed the door. He was right. The objective was not to defeat the shadow. It was to successfully cross the obstacle which was the shadow.
Still, it had to be said that the shadow held back a lot. He could feel it. The shadow had intentionally lost himself in the battle.
Reve vowed that he would never forget his experience with the young boy. It had shown him a new world. It inspired his creation of [Moira]. Furthermore, if he could master the moves the young boy displayed, he would be able to improve his combat skill as a mage.
'Now, where am I?'
Reve appeared in another hall. This time, it was more unique.
In the hall, Four stages made of ice crystals rose. The length of the stages was long, about thirty kilometers. On some stages, a few figures stood lonely. Beside them was a corpse. While on other stages, two candidates fought to the death.
Getting to the hall, a pillar rose from the ground and led him up. After reaching a particular height, the pillar stopped and Reve could see another glacial pillar close to him. On the top of the pillar sat Amethyst and his herald.
The annoying god smiled broadly, "Reve, congratulations! This is the last stage of the selection process, You have my word for it."
Reve wanted to curse but he just sighed, "What are the details of this final stage? It seems like a brawl."
Having reached this stage, he couldn't focus his emotions on meager things. He couldn't keep feeding Amethyst's ego. The annoying god seemed to like preying on that.
"Yes, since ancient times, a pure battle was always the norm. Battle royales and duels without rules have always been chosen to decide important things. I have tested other things, so why don't we go back to the basics; a true duel," mentioned Amethyst.
What he said was made sense to Reve. He glanced at the stages below and was enlightened, "A tournament-style duel, a fight for the heir title. This was only possible after you thinned the numbers. You reduced the number of candidates to eight. It seems you always had this final battle in mind."
"Haha, you understand. A duel would factor in all the criteria I have in mind. The first stage was the escape stage. The second stage was the revenge stage. The third stage was my best. Two candidates faced the shadows. Four faced the mimics. Two faced the abominations. It was random."
"Another shadow or the same?" queried Reve.
"A different one, a female one. There are only two entities I know that could qualify to be the shadows," smiled Amethyst.
It was unknown what he was thinking that brought a smile to his face. However, Reve looked at the opponents on the stages.
They were the final candidates. As of now, Reve was the last person to arrive. He was able to examine all the candidates.
Judging by their appearances, there was a dryad, a gorgon, a strange snake, a sylph, a banshee, a goblin king, and the young masked man.
The banshee was already dead. The gorgon killed it. The snake was also killed by the sylph. Whilst, the young masked man was battling with the goblin king.
Reve was shocked that the young masked man was among the final candidate. At the same time, it was nice to see someone he knew.
The ice pillar Reve was on began to retract back to the earth. It was leading Reve to his stage. Reve stared down at his stage.
On it was a dryad, who sensed Reve's stare and looked at him. Reve looked quite apathetic as he analyzed the dryad. He jumped from the ice pillar.
Using his claws, Reve struck the ice of the pillar and glided down. His movements were perfect. Getting to the stage, Reve circulated his mana. His opponent wasn't going to be easy.
In fact, she might prove to be quite unsettling for him. This was due to their attribute negation.
A dryad was a magical creature that was similar to elementals. They were born out of nature mana. This gave them immense control over nature. Dryads were as gifted with magic as elves.
They were born with a large mana reserve, skipping several magic stages. They made the best of mages.
The dryad in front of him looked like a human female, except for the small green plant whips that coiled around her body, covering her intimate parts. Dryads loved nature. They didn't like wearing clothes.
Her green hair danced freely in the air as she announced herself, "My name is Chelone. You smell familiar."
Reve was busy examining her that he ignored her introduction. It only later did he realize what she had said.
He thought to himself, 'I'm starting to resemble the shadow. I'm even donning his signature silence.'
Walking slowly, Reve maintained a smile on his face, "Reve. I'm a nature-attributed mage."
A positive smile was on his face as he moved closer to Chelone. Instantly, he silently whispered, "[Nature]."
It seemed that Chelone thought the same as him as she sent a green plant whip to clash with his white plant whips. The green plant whips easily overwhelmed its opponent with sheer power.
It moved closer to Reve but the latter dodged it and disappeared from the spot. He appeared close to Chelone's back and sent a basic mana blast at her.
*Fume!*
The attack got swatted by a plant whip that rose from the ground at an incredible rate. A green plant stemmed behind Reve and stabbed his body.
His body slowly turned into small white plants.
The real Reve was distanced from Chelone. He was just testing out what he knew about dryads.
Sure enough, there were no faults with what he learned from Circe. Dryads were the ultimate adversary for any nature-attributed mage. The difference in magic prowess was like comparing a human child to a human adult.
Before he knew it, another plant whip attacked him but he stopped it with his [Telekinesis]. Normally, it wouldn't work against magic spells but [Nature] was quite special.
The magic spell worked by stimulating the growth of plant life. So, in actuality, the plant whips were not constructs of magic. They were as real as the sun!